NEW YORK—Stocks swept higher Thursday, revving the longest rally for Wall Street in a year and a half into a higher gear.
The S&P 500 rallied 1.2 percent to reach heights untouched since April 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 428 points, or 1.3 percent, while the Nasdaq composite rose 1.1 percent.
Homebuilder Lennar helped lead the S&P 500 with a gain of 4.4 percent after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It also gave a better-than-expected forecast for upcoming deliveries, saying customers are accepting the “new normal” of higher interest rates.
The stock market is still absorbing the Federal Reserve’s warning from a day earlier that it could raise interest rates two more times this year in its battle against inflation. It’s already hiked its benchmark rate to the highest level since 2007, which has helped slow inflation somewhat but has also caused severe pain in some areas of the economy….